Doubles Rain Sweep Team
So I was looking to make a weather team, and the main requirements that I made for myself was that
1. Most the team would be from the original 1st gen Pokemon (although 2nd gen would be good too)
2. To have the team be more offensive based
3. That it'd win battles (of course)
So I looked into all different weather strategies, sunny day seemed trickier to pull off/setup (Although I did do one finally! :D http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/smogon-doubles-sunshines-presence.3522747/ ) , sandstorm wasn't really my favorite kind of weather, and there didn't seem to be too many effective hail strategies.
Which left me to try a Rain Dance team, and after I looked up about it, I found that there's a lot of potential power in the rain game. Hence my team is a Rain Sweep Team. This team was not a doubles team but an OU team, but I found after a few tweaks, it makes a way better Doubles team than it ever did in singles. (as a side note the highest rating I've received from this team over all the battles I've done with it was about 1400)
My Party Goes As Follows:
Politoed @ Choice Specs
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Modest Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Scald
Politoed ironically was the last one I ended up placing on my team, I thought using damp rock with several other Pokemon (including Starmie, Kingdra, and Electrode) would work much better. But it turns out when it comes to the setup of Rain Dance, Politoed just does it better. In this set, I built him to be an instant offensive starter in order to throw off set up Pokemon (Dragon Dancers, Sword Dancers, all that stuff) and to provide more of an instant advantage. I put bulk on him using HP rather than speed because even with maxed out speed, it was still out-sped by many others, and with extra HP it could take an extra hit and still hit back.
Scizor-Mega @ Scizorite
Ability: Technician
EVs:252 HP/ 252 Atk/ 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
-Bullet Punch
-Swords Dance
-Bug Bite
-Protect
So of all the Pokemon I have placed on this team, Scizor-Mega was my last addition, and funny enough, it was an obvious choice why it'd work well on an offensive rain team. Because of its bulkiness and attack power, it can set up a quick swords dance, and then sweep quickly with its bullet punch. This one helps deal with all the problems that the others can't handle, especially after the rain is gone. Its a really basic and common set, but it still provides itself to be quite useful anyway.
Dragonite @ Expert Belt
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef
Lonely Nature
- Hurricane
- ExtremeSpeed
- Waterfall
- Dragon Claw
Dragonite makes for quite a nice revenge killer and a mixed sweeper makes so its a lot more flexible for whatever wall comes up. Multiscale also helps for unexpected surprises and for a more sure revenge. Hurricane with its 100% accuracy in rain sweeps out many threats that the rest of my team struggles with, especially fighting type threats. To help remedy the problems with Life Orb breaking the Multiscale, I decided to use expert belt as a better, more practical way to use the Multiscale to full advantage. But in the overall Dragonite has been a very essential member on this team.
Kabutops @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Protect
- Waterfall
- Knock Off
- Rock Slide
Kabutops is the king sweeper on this team, under the Rain Dance setup and Life Orb, its Waterfall attack hits hard enough to break down walls that most other attacks can't deal with well. Knock Off also helps in dealing with annoying items. Rock Slide is also very useful in finishing off duos that have already been hit hard. The main thing with this sucker is that it can only work decent if its raining, hence its been a wild card for me in some battles. But under Rain Dance and Swift Swim, it makes to be something deadly. Overall very simple idea behind this guy, although Kabutops is pretty much the staple of the team and why Rain Dance is so essential to the team.
Zapdos @ Damp Rock
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Modest Nature
- Thunder
- Rain Dance
- Protect
- Heat Wave
Zapdos provides itself to be the rainbringer after Politoed is long gone, and with Zapdos's Damp Rock, it makes the rain dance go for a good while in order to help setup for especially Kabutops, who can only really work in the rain. Zapdos also has higher speed than most others on the team, so it can pull off rain dance directly before its partner attacks (especially for Kabutops and Dragonite) which provides it to be very useful in such cases. Heat Wave is placed in order for a good counter for Ferrothorn/Scizor (Which I had no specific counters for in the past) in between having no rain and summoning it again.
Tentacruel @ Black Sludge
Ability: Rain Dish
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Protect
- Sludge Bomb
- Hydro Pump
- Substitute
Of all the Pokemon I could have chosen, why Tentacruel. Well, Tentacruel is not one who I quite thought as much for a rain team, but on the other hand it takes care of one major threat the rest of my the team falls for, Fairy type Pokemon. Most importantly, Tentacruel acts as a fairly good Special Defence wall and with its Black Sludge Item and Rain Dish Ability (also to mention that Tentacruel is the fastest Pokemon with Rain Dish ability), it can heal fairly quickly at 1/8 HP per turn. With Substitute combined with Protect and its speed adjustment and in addition its recovery item and ability it can hold out to be a fairly good stall, which can really fluster opponents who already used up their major sweepers.
ALTERNATE:
Omastar @ Leftovers
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 HP / 100 SDef / 156 Spd
Calm Nature
- Shell Smash / Spikes
- Ice Beam / Toxic Spikes
- Stealth Rock
- Hydro Pump
Omastar is one I thought would use more offensively, but after a few tweaks it also makes to be an awesome utility set-uper with both toxic spikes and stealth rock, with its already above par defenses. With how the spikes/toxic spikes move setup works, Omastar is essentially a stall, utility, suicide lead. By starting the battle with Politoed and Omastar, Drizzle makes to be a quicker setup for Omastar, plus Politoed takes care of instant set up threats from the other end that Omastar would have had to worry about. They make for quite a strong starting setup. However, because of Scizor's effectiveness and because of the abundance of water type offence already in the team, Omastar is kind of the odd one out.
I know there's probably a couple of spots where I could improve, just not quite exactly sure where.. but yeah that's it, my Doubles Rain Dance Sweep Team.
So I was looking to make a weather team, and the main requirements that I made for myself was that
1. Most the team would be from the original 1st gen Pokemon (although 2nd gen would be good too)
2. To have the team be more offensive based
3. That it'd win battles (of course)
So I looked into all different weather strategies, sunny day seemed trickier to pull off/setup (Although I did do one finally! :D http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/smogon-doubles-sunshines-presence.3522747/ ) , sandstorm wasn't really my favorite kind of weather, and there didn't seem to be too many effective hail strategies.
Which left me to try a Rain Dance team, and after I looked up about it, I found that there's a lot of potential power in the rain game. Hence my team is a Rain Sweep Team. This team was not a doubles team but an OU team, but I found after a few tweaks, it makes a way better Doubles team than it ever did in singles. (as a side note the highest rating I've received from this team over all the battles I've done with it was about 1400)
My Party Goes As Follows:
Politoed @ Choice Specs
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Modest Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Scald
Politoed ironically was the last one I ended up placing on my team, I thought using damp rock with several other Pokemon (including Starmie, Kingdra, and Electrode) would work much better. But it turns out when it comes to the setup of Rain Dance, Politoed just does it better. In this set, I built him to be an instant offensive starter in order to throw off set up Pokemon (Dragon Dancers, Sword Dancers, all that stuff) and to provide more of an instant advantage. I put bulk on him using HP rather than speed because even with maxed out speed, it was still out-sped by many others, and with extra HP it could take an extra hit and still hit back.
Scizor-Mega @ Scizorite
Ability: Technician
EVs:252 HP/ 252 Atk/ 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
-Bullet Punch
-Swords Dance
-Bug Bite
-Protect
So of all the Pokemon I have placed on this team, Scizor-Mega was my last addition, and funny enough, it was an obvious choice why it'd work well on an offensive rain team. Because of its bulkiness and attack power, it can set up a quick swords dance, and then sweep quickly with its bullet punch. This one helps deal with all the problems that the others can't handle, especially after the rain is gone. Its a really basic and common set, but it still provides itself to be quite useful anyway.
Dragonite @ Expert Belt
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef
Lonely Nature
- Hurricane
- ExtremeSpeed
- Waterfall
- Dragon Claw
Dragonite makes for quite a nice revenge killer and a mixed sweeper makes so its a lot more flexible for whatever wall comes up. Multiscale also helps for unexpected surprises and for a more sure revenge. Hurricane with its 100% accuracy in rain sweeps out many threats that the rest of my team struggles with, especially fighting type threats. To help remedy the problems with Life Orb breaking the Multiscale, I decided to use expert belt as a better, more practical way to use the Multiscale to full advantage. But in the overall Dragonite has been a very essential member on this team.
Kabutops @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Protect
- Waterfall
- Knock Off
- Rock Slide
Kabutops is the king sweeper on this team, under the Rain Dance setup and Life Orb, its Waterfall attack hits hard enough to break down walls that most other attacks can't deal with well. Knock Off also helps in dealing with annoying items. Rock Slide is also very useful in finishing off duos that have already been hit hard. The main thing with this sucker is that it can only work decent if its raining, hence its been a wild card for me in some battles. But under Rain Dance and Swift Swim, it makes to be something deadly. Overall very simple idea behind this guy, although Kabutops is pretty much the staple of the team and why Rain Dance is so essential to the team.
Zapdos @ Damp Rock
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Modest Nature
- Thunder
- Rain Dance
- Protect
- Heat Wave
Zapdos provides itself to be the rainbringer after Politoed is long gone, and with Zapdos's Damp Rock, it makes the rain dance go for a good while in order to help setup for especially Kabutops, who can only really work in the rain. Zapdos also has higher speed than most others on the team, so it can pull off rain dance directly before its partner attacks (especially for Kabutops and Dragonite) which provides it to be very useful in such cases. Heat Wave is placed in order for a good counter for Ferrothorn/Scizor (Which I had no specific counters for in the past) in between having no rain and summoning it again.
Tentacruel @ Black Sludge
Ability: Rain Dish
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Protect
- Sludge Bomb
- Hydro Pump
- Substitute
Of all the Pokemon I could have chosen, why Tentacruel. Well, Tentacruel is not one who I quite thought as much for a rain team, but on the other hand it takes care of one major threat the rest of my the team falls for, Fairy type Pokemon. Most importantly, Tentacruel acts as a fairly good Special Defence wall and with its Black Sludge Item and Rain Dish Ability (also to mention that Tentacruel is the fastest Pokemon with Rain Dish ability), it can heal fairly quickly at 1/8 HP per turn. With Substitute combined with Protect and its speed adjustment and in addition its recovery item and ability it can hold out to be a fairly good stall, which can really fluster opponents who already used up their major sweepers.
ALTERNATE:
Omastar @ Leftovers
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 HP / 100 SDef / 156 Spd
Calm Nature
- Shell Smash / Spikes
- Ice Beam / Toxic Spikes
- Stealth Rock
- Hydro Pump
Omastar is one I thought would use more offensively, but after a few tweaks it also makes to be an awesome utility set-uper with both toxic spikes and stealth rock, with its already above par defenses. With how the spikes/toxic spikes move setup works, Omastar is essentially a stall, utility, suicide lead. By starting the battle with Politoed and Omastar, Drizzle makes to be a quicker setup for Omastar, plus Politoed takes care of instant set up threats from the other end that Omastar would have had to worry about. They make for quite a strong starting setup. However, because of Scizor's effectiveness and because of the abundance of water type offence already in the team, Omastar is kind of the odd one out.
I know there's probably a couple of spots where I could improve, just not quite exactly sure where.. but yeah that's it, my Doubles Rain Dance Sweep Team.
Last edited:
